US-Iran war Trump tariffs CJP protest in Delhi World Brain Day

Telegram adds bunch of features including new Theme Editor, Send When Online, Podcast support and much more

End to end encrypted messaging app Telegram has announced a whole bunch of new features that will be seen on the app soon.

Tech2 News Staff|Jan 01, 2020, 12:48:57 IST

End to end encrypted messaging app Telegram has announced a whole bunch of new features that will be seen on the app soon.These features were announced in a blog post last night. Being a security focused app, Telegram will now let developers who make open source apps to independently verify their code on GitHub and ensure that it is the same code that was used to build the app they downloaded from the App Store or Google Play Store.The new features coming to Telegram have already started rolling out.Here are the major features.

New Theme Editor 2.0

via GIPHYYou will need to head to Chat Settings (Android) or Appearance Settings (iOS) to tweak how your Telegram interface looks. From changing the background to changing the chat window gradients, you can tweak the look to your heart's content. You also have predefined colour themes, where you can further tweak some things.

Send When Online

via GIPHYTelegram already had a feature to schedule your messages when the recipient came online, provided you are allowed by the recipient to see when they are online. Now you can also schedule Stickers along with messages, with or without sound.

View Search Results as a list

via GIPHYYou can use the universal search feature to search for a particular word or phrase in a Telegram chat. But earlier you had to click on the up/down arrow to toggle between search results. The latest update shows you a list of search results thereby reducing the number of clicks required to go to your desired result.

Podcast and Audiobook support

[caption id="attachment_7847341" align="alignnone" width="1280"]

Telegram podcast feature.[/caption]This is a boon for podcast addicts. If you have an audio file or a podcast longer than 20 mins, Telegram will be able to remember your last played position. There's also a 2x speed dial for podcasts.

Android updates

Switch to Night Mode quicker

via GIPHYTelegram on Android has supported Night Mode since 2017, but activating that involved a lot of steps. Now with just a single tap, you can switch between regular and night mode. This applies to the Maps as well.

New ripple animations

via GIPHY

Select part of a message

via GIPHYThis feature has been there on iOS. Now the Android app will also let you select part of the message instead of the full text.

Multi-sharing from other apps

via GIPHYTelegram on Android will now let you share stuff with your friends from multiple apps. You can send a photo from Instagram or a tweet from Twitter to multiple friends and will even get an option to add a comment accompanying it.

iOS updates

Choose your browser

External browser support has now been added for opening links. Head to Settings > Data and Storage > Other to select between in-app Safari, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Opera Touch among others.

Share sheet settings

You can control what does or doesn't appear in your iOS Share Sheet (which generally adds your most popular Telegram chats). Head over to Settings >Data and Storage > Other > Share Sheet and toggle according to your preference.

Switch Accounts faster

[caption id="attachment_7847381" align="alignnone" width="600"]

Switching between Telegram accounts[/caption]Just long hold on the Telegram icon and it will show you the other Telegram accounts. You can switch between up to three phone numbers without logging out.

Storage usage at a glance

[caption id="attachment_7847401" align="alignnone" width="600"]

Telegram storage options[/caption]You can get a quick look at how Telegram is using your phone's storage now. You can see the Telegram Cache, Other apps and Free storage. There is a button to clear Telegram Cache with a single click as well. Head over to Settings > Data and Storage > Storage Usage for more options.